Walking The Grade and Bicycling Around Huahine Nui

Huahine is comprised of two islands, Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti, that are connected by a bridge. Yesterday we used our bikes to bicycle around Huahine Nui which is approximately 15 miles and only one mountain with a 15% grade going up and down. That may not sound that steep to some, but on a bike 15% is insane. As you could figure we decided to walk the bikes up the mountain and we tried riding them down, but with a cliff on one side, cars, and aggressively breaking we walked the bikes down the mountain.

Bicycling Around Huahine Nui

The bike ride was fun and challenging. Starting in Fare, the main town, we biked north and northeast for the Maeva Archaeological Site to view the marae’s still erect. After Maeva, the rode travels along Lake Fauna Nui made from saltwater and filled with at least 13 stone fish traps. As we rode along we arrived in Faie and saw coke signs hanging from a building, which generally means there is a restaurant, but as it turned out they were closed. Across the street were a couple of ladies selling various fruits and sandwiches. Lillian spoke a fair amount of English and was helpful to guiding the sell of a pomme which is part of the apple family, but had a different taste and texture. She was also selling an egg sandwich and a chow mien and chicken sandwich; which, at first Wade was a little nervous about the chow mien, but it turned out to be a good choice. This little yummy lunch cost us $2.50 and was filling. As we finished our lunch a tour group stopped and started tossing fish on a ledge near the water and we watched eels jump out of the water to eat the fish on the ledge. We learned they are the towns pets and the local people feed them, but do not eat them. The water running through town is fresh water so these eels are kind of trapped in this one area.

As we left Faie we saw a 15% grade for 2km sign and thought should we turn around? We started our climb with the bikes, as a little white Fiat filled with four girls tried to down shift into a lower gear and climb the steep hill. Just then the gears started grinding and the ladies started to chatter loudly then the car died. The driver put on the brakes and everyone was quiet as they sat with the break on the narrow steep hill. The driver tried to start the car, but each time she would try the car would start to roll backwards and all the other girls would start to scream, so she gave in and slowly swerved to the bottom of the hill to try again. When we heard the car start we had to stop and watch the show because around the same spot the driver almost seemed to have not learned her lesson because the car almost stalled again, until we heard the gear catch, and all the girls scream. We waved and cheered them on as they passed by.

At the top of hill is Belvedere Lookout which overlooks Teavaava Bay and Puravai Bay and from Kalo’s prospective looked like a heart. Going down the other side of the lookout also had a 15% grade for 2km sign, so we walked the bikes to the bottom. There were a few more small hills that would go up then down, but once we arrived in Fitii the road was flat until Fare. We stopped and purchased 4 pineapples for $5 that were super yummy. We’ve seen pineapple grow mostly on farms and not in the wild, but $5 was the best deal we’ve seen around.

At the end of the day we really enjoyed our trip around the island and we can say we’ve walked the grade and lived to tell the tale.